While rumors swirl around about the possible loss of the #Zuma, launched last night by #SpaceX atop a #Falcon9, may I present Streak(s) #2, another SINGLE, 464-second exposure.
In a possible act of photographic overkill, I was running three different cameras in roughly the same spot last night for the Zuma launch (and landing!). Because I've shot both OG2 and CRS9 from this place at Jetty Park, I knew the vertical shot would work fine (see my post from last night), but I wanted to experiment with some foreground. So, I set the second DSLR (really, my primary camera, a Canon 5D4) with some of the Jetty in the foreground.
A few moments before the Sunday, January 7, 2018, 8 pm (ET) launch, two things happened: I began to worry that I was too low to catch the first (and very high) re-entry burn, and I realized I had forgotten to clean the lens (a Rokinon 14mm). I wasn't about to start fussing with the lens, but I did pan up a bit. So the result is shown here: spots around the bright streak (as it stands, I did a lot of spot removal in Lightroom) and only a small bit of the sizable crowd made it in the frame. In my haste to get something posted, the cleaner vertical shot won out over this one (it needed very little in the way of post-processing).
The exposure was perfect, although the exposure time is 8-seconds shorter than the vertical shot only because the shutter release likes to mess with me and release itself. Eight seconds in and this camera ended the exposure, thus causing me to grab the shutter release quickly and hold the button down for 464 seconds. (I was going to work in a topical jab at my button size and/or function, but have thought better of it.)
As for the third camera, I need to wait a few days to see if that shot worked.
Details: ISO100, 464-second exposure, f18 with a Rokinon 14mm on a Canon 5D Mark IV (full-frame) body.
(The stage separation was amazing; you can see some of the dance in this photo, although this image, even zoomed in, doesn't d

Achievement Unlocked: Attempt a Pad Streak
With a direct nod to those who blazed the trail before me, I present my attempt to pull off a rocket streak using a pad camera, during the day.
With apologies to anyone I'm forgetting to acknowledge in this tag-fest, the first time I saw this kind of shot was Bill Ingalls' fabulous pad streak of a Soyuz. Alan Walters' pad streaks are amazing, and John Studwell and Bill Jelen have joined the party as well. Ben Cooper is doing next-level streak imagery; specifically, the landing streak he did is the stuff of legends. And, it was Bill Jelen aka Mr. Excel who, after successfully capturing a pad streak last launch, brought an extra camera to my house the other night with the specific suggestion that I try the streak. (The camera is actually Jared Haworth's camera that he leaves in Florida for We Report Space to, well, report space.)
So, here it is. This is actually 2 frames, both of them 20-second exposures shot through a 10-stop ND filter. I'm using 2 frames to bring out some of the detail that was obscured in the first (the launch) frame; by the time the second exposure fired, much of the cloud had dissipated. Initial edits were done in Lightroom, the composite was done in Photoshop and then final edits were done (again) in Lightroom.
Again, my thanks to my photographic colleagues who I am so fortunate to learn from, and imitate.
(Photo by Michael Seeley / We Report Space) — at Launch Pad 39-A.

At 5:07pm (ET) on June 3, 2017, SpaceX successfully launched the #CRS11 #Falcon9 rocket, carrying a previously flown #Dragon capsule to resupply the International Space Station. This was the 100th launch from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, and the first time a previously flown (aka "flight-proven", per Elon Musk) capsule was used as the payload. (Photos by Michael Seeley / We Report Space)

So when I said a moment ago that I was done with the gratuitious and excessive edits to my CRS10 images, apparently I was kidding.
The response to the raindrops was quite positive, so much so that for this edit, I'm fully embracing the ascetic, taking it in an almost laughable direction. (I can almost hear Jared Haworth groaning when he sees this edit.)
Edits done in Lightroom and then Color efex Pro.
(Photos by Michael Seeley / We Report Space)

#GOESR #AtlasV Twilight shot: Denied.
This is a completely hacked shot. It's a combination of two frames taken off my backup streak camera. The first frame was taken at 5:20pm as the sun was setting. She sky was just brilliant, and the sun was throwing lovely oranges and reds downrange. The second frame is a 163 second exposure of the streak, taken at 6:42pm.
I'm showing it here to show a version of the shot we were hoping for, but as the launch slipped to the end of the window, we ended up shooting a full nighttime launch. I'm still not sure what issues United Launch Alliance needed to work out (and then the range got involved, also adding a few minutes to the delay), but despite missing the twilight, it was still a really lovely launch.
Tech specs:
Frame 1: 13 second exposure, f7.1, ISO 100 through a 10 stop ND filter
Frame 2: 163 second exposure, f20, ISO 100
Both were at 10mm (on a crop sensor).
Frames processed in Lightroom and then stacked in Photoshop.